Leadership & who is a Kenyan?

Leadership is seen by some as a calling and indeed in the old days, one would be prepared from an early age to assume such a mantle. In Christian terms, one is seen as a shepherd, an intercessor and someone to whom wisdom is assumed to be higher than his followers. In modern times, a leader is somebody who can transcend the present be it the situation, environment or even time. So in this respect, I'll believe we have a leader in Kenya when we can get someone who can transcend the tribal, the poverty of original thinking, the deep-seated need for change. It'll be a while though judging by the current crop...

Who is a Kenyan?

Excellent interview with EABL's CEO

I really like some of the ideas that Mahinda had.

1. "Utopia for business, is when politics and business are totally divorced": In the same way that an individual can't perform as a surgeon and a lawyer with equal excellence at the same time, GoK shouldn't expect or imagine that it can run businesses and govern at the same time. GoK's role should be to create the enabling framework, implement it and then run maintenance work over it, otherwise leave the private sector to run with these programmes. Civil servants owning or running businesses should either declare their interests or forfeit them.
2. Given Kenya's "chama" phenomena...GoK should move fast to incentivize local collective borrowing and investment: So support investment clubs by recognising legally and in terms of IPOs, giving the opportunity afforded so-called QIIs.
3. ...however, all these can only be done with the right leadership: Kenyans are yet to have the sort of leadership that is able to adequately address 21st Century problems that we face. For example, we talk day and night about diaspora remittances, but we don't want to give them dual citizenship; there are no known programmes to work with so-called developed nations to facilitate Kenyan economic migrants similar to those done by South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In ICT, we need a qualified head of ICT who covers everything fro mobile telephony to the undersea cabling to computerisation of schools; GoK information network et al

A cost-benefit approach in Kenya?

Recent initiatives by the GoK have led to some head scratching. Free secondary tuition fees is to some a missed opportunity to re-look at the Education needs of a growing economy e,.g. why not put this cash into a state of the art ICT university? Spending upto Sh10bn to upgrade JKIA may be more expensive than say upgrading one of the smaller airports and thus enhancing air transport within and out of the country. So how does GoK arrive at decisions?-probably it’s all about affordability. Cost benefit approach is not just about the monetary aspect but the macro-economic, social, political and environmental impacts. So for:
Constitution changes: We've spent sh8-10bn and 15years+ of agitation and still have nothing to show for it. However, if the original question had been what are the socio, economic, political, legal and environmental consequences of updating our constitution through incremental changes rather than one large overhaul maybe halfway to some achievements.
Anti-corruption drive: The impact of the failed drive to bring down corruption and convictions in major corruption cases is enormous in monetary terms, but also socially (it becomes an acceptable form of achieving your aspirations in life); politically (the corrupt want to get in power so they can continue to be corrupt, once in power don’t want to leave because of fear); environmentally (willy-nilly allocation of land and other resources thus no Ngong/Karura forest, Nairobi dam is a sewer).
Million political parties: Failure to create thresholds for forming political parties means politics becomes a way of life for many, it’s commercialised, no ideas-parties.
Lack of separation of powers: Means judiciary and its decisions are compromised and outcomes of cases have social impacts (e.g. bribing a judge to favor you in a marital dispute case), politically (e.g. politically-instigated corruption cases); economically (commercial decisions).
Stalled power sector reforms: As China, South Korea and others have found out, its far harder to increase energy generation capacity, institute conservation measures once your economy id in full throttle. Continued subsidisation of energy generation will eventually slowdown economic growth, as will the slow implementation of a separate rural electrification company
Urban policy: 50% of Nairobians live in slums and this may continue in other large towns as well. To a large extent, this is due to no urban policy looking at issues such as urban economic push (i.e. developing rural-based industries to slowdown rural-urban migration), services, housing policy and will have social (insecurity, social breakdowns); economic (concentration of wealth-generation in Nairobi conurbation) and environmental impacts (smog, polluted rivers, air quality etc).
And such an approach need not been lengthy or be costly, cabinet ministers meet every week and we do have an economic planning ministry.

Legacy Leadership

Nelson Mandela is a worldwide icon because he laid down the best years of his life for his people, was freed, became president of South Africa and left a legacy of a reconciled/reconciling beacon of African democracy for the world to see. The late Boris Yeltsin is hailed in the West as a brave leader who finally ushered Russia into the post-communist world, while Russians remember him as a drunk who broke up their nation, gave away nation assets creating Oligarchs and wasted a golden opportunity to democratise Russia, create a free but fair economy and above all took them into Chechnya. Uganda remembers Idi Amin with a shudder, Margaret Thatcher is remembered as the PM who privatised everything but the Queen. Deng Xiapong is now known as the Chinese leader who kicked off its current economy turbo charge. Lee Kuan Yew's authoritarian leadership in Singapore and that of Mahathir in Malaysia pulled their respective economies into the 21st century. In Kenya, we remember Jomo Kenyatta for his oratory skills, ushering in Kenyan economics (growing while allowing stealth corruption), tribalism and uttering unprintable names political assassinations. We have Moi to thank for the mkae hivyo hivyo economics, tribal clashes at every election, Goldenberg, Pattni, roadside cabinent reshuffles and Kibaki-free primary education and continuation of Kenya economics-I think apart from political assassinations this guy is Jomo Kenyatta true heir. The question, how many of these leaders ever think about the legacy they want to leave behind or how they will be remembered and is it important. What sort of qualities do leaders who have overhauled their nations and left a positive impact need or require?

In the private sector, you have your Henry Ford for the whole assembly concept; Warren Buffet for investing in value; George Soros for UK not being part of the Euro; Jack Welch for introducing Six Sigma to GE and the corporate world and succession planning in management. Sandy Weill/Chuck Prince have transformed Citigroup despite recent underperfomance as has Ken Lewis (and Hugh Mccoll before him) at BoA. Toyoda for Toyota; Chris Gent at Vodafone is a notable company builder in the UK. James Mwangi and Peter Munga with Equity Bank are on the way to building a banking concept of note in Kenya. However, there are few other CEOs/Chairmans that one can say have transformed the business landscape Kenya. In business as in politics, vision, intelligence, and special comparative advantages are required to be a transformer.